Thanks, I needed that

From Christopher Buckley: Since we've already entered the Bermuda Triangle of the holidays, (Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's Eve) instead of being unhappy this year, how about working to unburden yourself from all your terrible past decisions? You can't change them now. (You know that, right?!)

Did you demonstrably learn from your mistakes? Good for you! Now you are wise. Be grateful and joyous, for 'tis the season! Have you not yet made your peace? Well, then, don't be bummed you haven't yet done the work... (You do have to, you know...) Just understand that right now, today, the past is as dead as disco and you should try something new. (Hopefully with adult supervision... because that tattoo on your ass was a mistake.) 

So just stop beating yourself up about your life choices, they are yesterday's news and dwelling on them will only make you and the rest of us all miserable... Let go. And, if you really are just a miserable SOB and want penance, I suggest you work hard to make someone else happy this time of year if you can't do it for yourself. (That should at least in part do it for you this season...)

"A lot of people are unhappy because they keep hoping for a better past." – Randy Spencer

The international slave trade

I'm not going to share the awful photos going around the internet of the slave trade in Libya or the riots in Paris demanding that someone DO something about slavery after the CNN report. Modern day slavery is bigger than the 18th c. trans-Atlantic slave trade--about 21 million people; where was the outrage when it has been reported for years? In the U.S. we'd rather focus on microaggressions and reparations for events of 3 centuries ago.

The U.S. has a Trafficking in Persons law begun under President Clinton in 2000 and it is continually reauthorized. The 2001 TIP report names Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, and other countries as transit and destination areas for trafficked East European women. Also NGOs and Christian organizations have been battling both the sex slavery and labor slavery for years. Even the much maligned Glenn Beck has done extensive stories on this scourge. In 2000 when I wrote my retirement plan, I noted the international slave trade.

Unfortunately, if you look through the TIP 18 annual reports, you see it is a "monitoring" country by country report on what each are doing. No teeth. Like the bank robbery commercial. Or the Congressional "ethics" committee. Europe has its own "monitoring" organization with annual reports for modern slavery, called GRETA.

[2001] "The United Kingdom (UK) is a destination country for trafficked men, women, and girls. A Government-sponsored report estimates that up to 1,500 women and girls are trafficked into the UK annually for purposes of sexual exploitation from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, South America, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam. Although there are no reliable data as to the numbers of victims, men, women, and children from the Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, China, Congo, Angola, Colombia, and Ecuador also are trafficked to the UK; labor exploitation occurs primarily in agriculture, sweatshops, and industry." (2001 TIP report, State Dept)

[2009] Libya: "Both migrants and trafficking victims are routinely smuggled through Libya to Europe, especially to or through Italy and Malta, en route to various locations on the continent. Libya’s migrant population of 1.5 to 2 million represents about one-third of its overall population. Although precise figures are unavailable, foreign observers estimate that one-half to one percent of foreigners (i.e., up to 20,000 people) may be victims of trafficking. In some cases, smuggling debts and illegal status leave migrants vulnerable to coercion, resulting in cases of forced prostitution and forced labor;" (2009 TIP report, State Dept)

[2016] "The purpose of this Report is to enlighten, energize, and empower." (John Kerry, 2016 TIP report, State Dept)

So it seems it does take a war to end slavery, even one fought with impure motives and by people unclear about what they were doing, not just monitoring and annual task force reports.

https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/

Falls and the elderly

I've been nagging my husband about ladders.  I think we've got help at the lake house, but there's still the pesky storage for Christmas décor that is stored in the garage attic using precarious stairs that need to be pulled down. I followed my own advice, and decided to help him drag out the x-mas decorations from the attic by standing beside the ladder and making sure nothing stupid happened. One very large box fell and broke the lid. And while I was trying to grab it as it fell, I pulled my back a little.  But he's fine.

I think it's about time to go to the little tiny tree that sits on a table.

Thank you, Harry Reid

"As of November 3rd, 13 Trump nominees to the courts have been confirmed this year. The big name is Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, but we also have eight new federal appeals court judges, and four new U.S. district court judges. President Trump has now already surpassed the last four presidents' records for first-year judifical confirmations. And he's even tied President Ronald Reagan number of appeals court confirmations in year one."

Harry Reid killed the filibuster so Obama could railroad his appointees through without Republican objection. Recently Democrats have been trying to use the blue slip tradition to replace it, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) has stopped that.  So the nation has been fixated on "inappropriate' behavior, Trump has been scoring major victories that will last far past his time in office.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/24/trumps-biggest-win-yet-comes-thanks-to-congress-commentary.html

Friday family photo--Thanksgiving past

1971 birthdays/Thanksgiving

1996

2009

2015

2017

Thankful the president isn't Clinton

The Democrats will continue to drag us kicking and screaming into some wasteland of Marxist gulag, but I think it has been slowed down just a bit. And maybe that little girl who survives the abortion mill will someday be president of the United States. Hollywood and academe still have conservatives locked out, and they are huge forces in the culture.

Washington Post throws a bone occasionally on the Opinion Page (8 out of 9 news articles are anti-Trump--it's owned by Jeff Bezos). This article brings out the big benefits, like the courts, that we have with President Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-thanksgiving-im-grateful-hillary-clinton-is-not-president/2017/11/22/68bafc9a-cee7-11e7-9d3a-bcbe2af58c3a_story.html?

"While the Supreme Court only hears about 80 cases a year, the federal appeals courts get final say on about 60,000 — and because Democrats ended the filibuster, they can’t stop Trump from filling those courts with conservative legal rock stars. The Senate has already confirmed eight of Trump’s nine appellate nominees — the most this early in a presidency since Richard Nixon – and Trump will appoint plenty more before his first term expires."

Also, Paris Climate agreement, freeing Americans in foreign prisons, putting some teeth into that red line Obama drew, EPA walk backs, removing shackles from the military, standing up to North Korea, and improvement over the softy and mushy Obama approach to foreign religions.

Build a salad

Although I'm not employed, I do volunteer. Here's how to take a salad to work. Put the dressing on the bottom of a plastic bowl that has a tight lid (some people use glass jars). Then add the heaviest, least absorbent vegetables, washed and sliced so you don't have to wrestle with it in view of everyone. Put chopped lettuce on that, then either the meat/fish, nuts or cheese. Seal and keep upright if possible. Shake briefly before opening. Today I used a vegetable salad mix with beets, carrots and kale. So I zapped that a few minutes in the microwave to make it more manageable--also makes the nutrients more available. Now I'm hungry.

Critical theory

Let's not be naïve about the Black Lives Matter movement, the Snowflakes seeking safe places so they don't have to hear conservative ideas, the Occupiers of a few years ago, and the anthem protests by millionaires. This is not about ignorance, they don't need to be educated.  It's a form of mind control called "critical theory," and that's just dressing up the so-called educated for a party, Marxism. It's effective in societies that don't have a poor working class to riot like the late 1890s or early 20th century.

Your children's teachers were educated in the 80s or 90s when critical theory was usually just literature and history being "deconstructed," and those people had as their faculty a few years before, the radicals of the 1960s and 1970s who enjoyed the sexual revolution, awakening feminism along with the Viet Nam War protests.

Explaining that slavery existed since the dawn of time, or that free American blacks owned slaves, or that the founding fathers developed a truly revolutionary society unknown to the world controlled by church, kings and dictators, or that one can't change his biological sex, or that capitalism has set millions free from thousands of years of poverty, or that climate has been changing for millions of years is not going to work. (Although I will continue to blog about it.) Not even going to "work" after they leave campus is going to work, because their CEOs and managers have absorbed the same distorted view of history, literature, politics and biology.

The purpose of critical theory (aka Marxism) is to rip apart the fabric of our society--beginning with the family, moving on up through business and employment, and to the government at all levels--your school board, city council, state legislature, the House, Senate, Executive and Judiciary, and yes, the military. And once the movement has stripped everyone under 50 of all their values, beliefs, faith and honor, they stand naked before the firing squad.

Just a Christmas cold?

I haven’t seen Elizabeth in probably 40 years—our husbands were co-workers and we’d chat at the office family Christmas parties with all the kids hanging on to us.  But we reconnected on Facebook.  Last week we had to cancel an invitation because my husband got a cold, and we decided not to “share.” Today I noticed this on Elizabeth’s FB page—the story of a Christmas cold and how she lost her voice—maybe permanently.

“ This is how it started: a guest brought a cold to a Christmas Eve party three winters ago and I caught it. I had never had a sinus infection or pneumonia before but knew something wasn't right because my chest would do this weird bubbling sensation when I exhaled. Right after New Year's Day I went to see my primary care doctor about it and he misdiagnosed the pneumonia as acid reflux. I was left untreated until right after Valentine's Day when it finally got so bad I was having serious trouble breathing. I finally hit bottom and was taken to a hospital emergency room by emergency squad. At the hospital I was given the chest x-ray I should have gotten weeks before and they diagnosed double pneumonia. I was treated there with a nebulizer and given a prescription for an antibiotic, slowly recovered, but my lungs were permanently damaged by then and I have never been the same since. After another trip to the emergency room for breathing problems a year later (emphysema was diagnosed from a CT Scan) I was referred to a pulmonologist.

The first medication I was put on was a Breo inhaler daily; it worked for the most part but eventually caused thrush to grow on my vocal chords--a common side-effect with the use of a steroid inhaler; we are told to rinse our mouths after use to keep that from happening but we can't rinse down far enough to reach the vocal chords. I was recently treated with Diflucan, an antifungal, told to stop using the Breo inhaler and was switched to something else, but it did not bring my voice back.

I also have ulcers on my vocal chords. In late July/early August a guest brought a coughing/sore throat virus and I caught it. The virus, because my immune response was compromised due to the Breo, pushed things over the edge and caused me to lose my voice; it has never come back. It may never come back so I am more-or-less a mime now.”

From vice to substance abuse disorder in 100 years

JAMA (Oct. 24/31, 2017) had an interesting opinion piece, "A death in the family" about a doctor who overdosed on fentanyl. It was a tragedy for his colleagues, family, friends, and thousands of future patients who will never benefit from his skill. But it was also a tragedy for the English language and our search for someone to blame. "Overdose on fentanyl?" "substance abuse disorder?" "stress and burnout?"

Remember when poverty was blamed for drug use--it was a ghetto problem? Remember when it was the pathology of the black family and its roots in slavery? Remember when it was poor parenting and kids hadn't been raised right? Or, they just need Jesus? Or going way back, remember when opium was blamed on "vice" (i.e. Asians)? Or today's news--the drug lords (Mexican gangs)?

30 years ago when I was employed at the vet college I learned that veterinarians had a higher suicide rate than physicians, and women higher (in attempts) than men, but the reasons given were different; the grief and sadness the same.

I certainly don't have the answers, but then, neither has anyone else the last 50-60 years, and that's small comfort.

This article contains a good list. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266064/

Partial view of the JAMA article. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2658326

The best advice you'll get on gratitude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxmORnnP3WI

Dennis Prager's Prager U. videos are the best.

Grateful people can change the world.

Will there really be more jobs with a tax cut?

You are right to be suspicious.  Look what we were told about Obamacare and saving money and keeping our doctors.  But Tax Foundation has crunched some numbers (for the Senate plan) and says yes, but it depends on your state. Stock market went crazy with the news Thursday—not sure that’s more jobs however.  Ohio already apparently has an unfriendly tax climate—I think we’re something like 45^th and Illinois is 46^th—not a good place to be.  Tax Foundation estimates 35,063 jobs and $2,375 after tax income in Ohio.  For Illinois 38,465 jobs and $2,701 after tax income. A lot more is involved, however.  We all know Mt. Morris jobs didn’t go to Thailand, they went to states in southern USA or to Rockford.   https://taxfoundation.org/tax-cut-senate-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act/

In this example of 9 different filers some get more than others, but the only ones losing are a married couple, Laura and Seth (one earner), with 2 children earning $2 million. Of the nine examples, they have the highest income.  The one who gains the most is the single guy (Jason) earning $52,000.  Of course, if single guy Jason had some children and a wife, he’d be getting EITC and the government would be paying him a bonus of about $6,000.  But only tax payers are covered in this example of 9 households, not the 49% who don’t pay any federal income tax.  https://taxfoundation.org/tax-cut-senate-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act/ 

Democrats of course will point out the gap between $52,000 and $2,000,000 not the change in what each household pays.

The harassment payout

Congress Spent $17 Million Paying For Its Sexual Harassment Settlements

Friday family photo--life expectancy and risk

But it's cold outside.

A recent article in Circulation by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital "found that more moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity -such as brisk walking - was associated with roughly a 60 percent to 70 percent lower risk of death at the end of the study among the most active women, compared to the least active."  Suggested even once a week could make a difference.  So I dug out my winter coat and took a one mile walk in the neighborhood.

I'm not good at math. I was born in 1939 and female life expectancy was 65.4. Then came vaccines and antibiotics. Now I'm 78 and life expectancy for someone my age is about 88-89 (the age at which my parents died). So if I'm reducing the risk of early death by walking where do I start (or end)?

You can tell this photo was taken in my husband's office, all the pencils are lined up. You can't even see the top of the desk in my office.

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/10/31/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.031300

Will this tax plan actually create jobs?

You are right to be suspicious.  Look what we were told about Obamacare and saving money and keeping our doctors.  But Tax Foundation has crunched some numbers (for the Senate plan) and says yes, but it depends on your state. Stock market went crazy with the news yesterday—not sure that’s more jobs, however.  Ohio already has an unfriendly tax climate—I think we’re something like 45^th and Illinois is 46^th—not a good place to be.  Tax Foundation estimates 35,063 jobs and $2,375 after tax income in Ohio.  For Illinois 38,465 jobs and $2,701 after tax income. A lot more is involved, however.  We all know Mt. Morris jobs didn’t go to Thailand, they went to states in southern USA or to Rockford.  https://taxfoundation.org/senate-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-state-impact/

 

In this example of 9 different filers some get more than others but the only ones losing are a married couple Laura and Seth (one earner) with 2 children earning $2 million. Of the nine examples, they have the highest income.  The one who gains the most is the single guy (Jason) earning $52,000.  Of course, if single guy Jason had some children and a wife, he’d be getting EITC and the government would be paying him a bonus of about $6,000.  But only tax payers are covered in this example of 9 households, not the 49% who don’t pay any federal income tax.  https://taxfoundation.org/tax-cut-senate-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act/ 

 

Democrats, of course, will point out the gap between $52,000 and $2,000,000 not the change in what each household pays.

 

 

The Train, author unknown

THE TRAIN: At birth we boarded the train and met our parents, and we believe they will always travel by our side. As time goes by, other people will board the train; and they will be significant i.e. our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of your life. However, at some station our parents will step down from the train, leaving us on this journey alone. Others will step down over time and leave a permanent vacuum.

Some, however, will go so unnoticed that we don't realize they vacated their seats. This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells. Success consists of having a good relationship with all passengers requiring that we give the best of ourselves.

The mystery to everyone is: We do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. So, we must live in the best way, love, forgive, and offer the best of who we are. It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.

I wish you all a joyful journey.

I've seen this essay and some similar attributed to various people; at this point I don't know who the author is.

 

49% of Americans pay no federal income tax

Some of them are very wealthy, and therefore aren't employed. They let their wealth work for them. Or they create non-profits with their wealth and contribute to them. But most are on the receiving end.

A worker with a stay at home spouse and 4 children, might earn $50,000/year and receive a check from the government instead of owing--Earned Income Tax Credit. That worker is better off than someone earning $65,000 and paying taxes. It keeps people in the low income bracket.

Our tax system is called "progressive," not in the political sense, but in economic. The more you earn, the higher your rate of taxes. The top quintile is paying for the rest of us. Democrats lie in spirit when they whine that the breaks go to the richest in the new tax plan. The wealthy are paying more than their fair share because of this progressive system.

The top 1% of Americans, who have an average income of more than $2.1 million, pay 43.6% of all the federal individual income tax in the U.S.; the top 0.1% — just 115,000 households, whose average income is more than $9.4 million — pay more than 20% of it. (Market Watch, 2016) Tell me what is fair about 1% paying 43.6%. But it is progressive. Tax Foundation uses different figures--not sure why these figures never match, but the outcome remains the same, the more you make, the more you pay for it. It's the American way.

More babies, longer life span?

https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/61/2/190/542517/Does-Having-Children-Extend-Life-Span-A  The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Volume 61, Issue 2, 1 February 2006, Pages 190–195

I came across an interesting article on using the genealogies of Old Order Amish to see how parity affected life span. Having a lot of children seems to affect both the life span of the father and the mother. Only after 14 (!) children do the pregnancies have an adverse affect on the Amish mother.  You’d have to read it and look up a few words (like parity—means number of deliveries) The advantage that I see in using genealogical records instead of medical records is it ended in 1912, before our current era of modern medicine.

So is it good genes, later menopause therefore affecting life span, or maybe having enough children around to work on the farm and take care of you in your old age? Since the majority of Americans lived on farms before the 20th c. I doubt it is any of today's concerns about diet, GMO, gluten and pesticides.

My genealogy has many Mennonites, some Old Order and some Old Order Brethren, some River Brethren but not sure about Old Order Amish. So far I haven't found another article on health among Old Order sects in American culture, but they are probably out there. You only have to look at a 18th-20th c. genealogies to see the longevity.

If you are related to me on my mother's side, her grandparents were Wengers. There is a database of of Hans and Hannah Wenger, 474,000 - 496,000 names (depending on update) of individuals, mostly descended from 18th century Mennonites, River Brethren (Brethren in Christ) and German Baptist Brethren who settled in Lancaster, Lebanon and Franklin Counties, Pennsylvania, in Ontario, Canada and in Washington Co. Maryland and Botetourt Co. Virginia. In the 1800s a number of the families moved to Darke Co. and Montgomery Co. Ohio and to Iowa, Indiana and Kansas. In the early 1900s there was continued migration to Upland, Calif. and Modesto, Calif.

Women who abort have higher death rates

Within the first 180 days, the risk of death from any cause is over twice as high following abortion compared to that following delivery. The risk of early death remains elevated for at least ten years.
Both abortion and miscarriage are linked to elevated mortality rates, but the effect is more strongly associated with induced abortions.
 
The largest portion of premature deaths following pregnancy loss are due to suicides, accidents, homicides, and some natural causes, such as circulatory disease, which are known to be associated with stress. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2050312117740490

Some awards are just appeals for sales

GQ, a magazine that is aimed at the "metrosexual" narcissistic male, has awarded Colin Kaepernick "Citizen of the Year" award.  Who knew a fashion rag had so much political savvy?

Some magazines will do anything to attract advertising. Founded in 1931 it is a fashion magazine promoting metrosexuality for "narcissistic young men sporting fashionable clothes and accessories." It shows men wearing clothes and women mostly not wearing them. There is a Russian edition. Hmmm.

"J.J. Watt is a superhuman. What he does on the field, like playing despite having a bone in his finger cut through his skin, is evidence of such. But it's his recent off-the-field efforts to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey that has elevated him to legendary status. 

The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year launched a fund on YouCaring.com to raise money for victims of Hurricane Harvey on Aug. 26 with an initial goal of $200,000. At the time, that seemed like a sizable yet attainable goal. In hindsight, perhaps Watt (and the rest of us) underestimated humanity's goodwill and willingness to help others in need." https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/09/15/jj-watt-hurricane-harvey-fundrasier-37-million